Thoughts on finding your place in the industry

*SUPER SUBJECTIVE STUFF AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK TO INDIVIDUALITY*

I don’t know my place in the game world. Things are changing so fast that it’s hard to tell if I’m on a good path or doing nothing at all. There are a few people who talk about their journey towards making better games as an indie dev. Theres a few tid-bits scattered around, but its hard to find good information (From both a design and artistic standpoint, I’m kinda tired of technical stuff). So thats what I’m here to try to do.

Again, I’m still new to this whole writing deal so bear with me while I figure out how to communicate to people.

People

The most important thing, I’ve found, when it comes to just making games for the love of making games is to find people who will take your games seriously.

I’ve found that to be the most important thing to my growth as a developer. People who, no matter how terrible the game is, will judge the game knowing I’m only going to get better with their help.

This doesn’t even have to be a local game community. It can be friends or family who you can enjoy talking games with. If you can’t find anyone irl then you can always try online communities. I find gamejolt or newgrounds to be the best for people looking for feedback.

But I’m being seriously serious, find people. Talk to people. Reach out to people to try your stuff. Ask them to let you know what they thought of it. Over time, years mind you, its not an overnight thing, you will see improvements with your games as you internalize the stuff people tell you and apply it without even thinking about it.

Selling In….its like selling out but not selling out….Get it? Its funny right? No? Fuck you guys.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have a job, a place to stay without needing to worrying about money, or are still in school: don’t feel as though you HAVE to sell your games. You don’t

Seriously, I hate the fact that games, in public thought, are viewed as things you make in order to make money.

Don’t think like that please. Make games because you want people to enjoy what you made. Make games because you have this super cool idea and you want to surprise people with it.

I feel like when money comes into the equation (at least when someone starts in the skill of game development) it takes something important away from the games that person makes.

It’s hard to explain but it has to do with the nature of games. When you make a game you know that someone will be playing it. When you make it with the intention to sell it, especially if you are just starting out, I feel like I see more developers relying on trends or what other games have done rather than experience or personal taste. 

Mostly because you want people to like your game, but you have less experience knowing what people like in your own games so you rely on what people liked in other games.

With free games this problem is gone because, fuck it, its a free game. Make whatever you want, the person on the other end isn’t losing much (besides maybe a few minutes of time). Them hating Them not enjoying the game isn’t as much of a loss because you don’t lose money, just a few hours/days of time.

Take your time, make games, learn from those experiences before you try something bigger.

Uniqueness is undetected plagiarism - Me 2015

One of the goals of any game designer is to make a truly unique game that everyone loves. Thats what your favourite developers have done isn’t it? Well chances are, not really.

Don’t beat yourself up if you cant come up with truly unique ideas because no one in the world has a unique idea any more. Really. If there is a game you think is unique, look into it more. Chances are the developer was taking elements from stuff all over the place.

And thats the trick. Just by making something, you have made something quote-unquote unique. No one else will have been able to come up with the idea you did because no one has had the experiences that lead up to you coming up with that idea.

No one else knows where you got the ideas for that one game because they didn’t watch the combinations of movies/shows you watched alongside that one song you listened to that sparked the idea.

Just enjoy making games, I can assure you that you will start to learn that the word ‘unique’ loses all meaning the more ‘unique’ games you make.

Ending

Seriously, if you are starting to make games, or feel lost in your place in the overall game community. DONT WORRY. Enjoy what you are doing. Try getting better at it, work at it, love it for what it is.

If you are worried that people aren’t taking notice of your stuff and you want them too. DONT WORRY. I truly believe that people will take notice once something becomes good enough for people to take notice. Maybe its not as many people as you hope but people will appreciate your work. Just keep making games.

Finally, the most important thing I’ve learned in the past year and a half making 100+ prototypes/games is if you can make one person smile/laugh/cry/feel smart/feel angry/feel unsettled then you have done good work. 

At the end of the day, our craft is not complete until the player enters the equation. If you can have one person walk away having not regretting their time with the game, you are doing good work.